Sonnet II
If that apparent part of life’s delightOur tingled flesh-sense circumscribes were seenBy aught save reflex and co-carnal sight,Joy, flesh and life might prove but a gross screen.Haply Truth’s body is no eyable being,Appearance even as appearance lies,Haply our close, dark, vague, warm sense of seeingIs the choked vision of blindfolded eyes.Wherefrom what comes to thought’s sense of life? Nought.All is either the irrational world we seeOr some aught-else whose being-unknown doth rotIts use for our thought’s use. Whence taketh meA qualm-like ache of life, a body-deepSoul-hate of what we seek and what we weep.
Words in this poem
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- haply adv.
- By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be.
- ache n.
- A name given to several species of plants; as, smallage, wild celery, parsley. Holland. [F. ache, L. apium parsley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Sonnet II is in the public domain. This text is taken from 35 Sonnets, Project Gutenberg ebook #19978; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Fernando Pessoa, Sonnet II, in 35 Sonnets (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #19978, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/pessoa-35-sonnets/sonnet-ii.html, id L23631.
Form and metre
Sonnet II is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCDEFEFGG, the pattern of the English sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 83%). Rhymes that have moved apart since the poem was written: abroad / ignored, being / seeming, rot / thought, be / secrecy, be / infinity and 56 more.
See other English sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABABCDCDEFEFGG delightA · seenB · sightA · screenB · beingC · liesD · seeingC · eyesD · noughtE · seeF · rotE · meF · deepG · weepG
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| If that apparent part of life’s delight | 10 | ··˘/˘···˘/ |
| Our tingled flesh-sense circumscribes were seen | 10 | //˘···˘/·· |
| By aught save reflex and co-carnal sight, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Joy, flesh and life might prove but a gross screen. | 10 | ·········· |
| Haply Truth’s body is no eyable being, | 11 | /˘·/˘····/˘ |
| Appearance even as appearance lies, | 10 | ˘/˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| Haply our close, dark, vague, warm sense of seeing | 11 | /˘/······/˘ |
| Is the choked vision of blindfolded eyes. | 10 | ···/˘·/·˘· |
| Wherefrom what comes to thought’s sense of life? Nought. | 11 | ··········· |
| All is either the irrational world we see | 11 | ··/˘·˘/˘··· |
| Or some aught-else whose being-unknown doth rot | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| Its use for our thought’s use. Whence taketh me | 10 | ···/···/˘· |
| A qualm-like ache of life, a body-deep | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Soul-hate of what we seek and what we weep. | 10 | ·········· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.